Another St. jMarinus is commemorated on the 4th of September. He was a native of Dalmatia, and worked on the bridge of Rimini, when his piety attracted the notice of bishop Gaudentius of Brescia, who persuaded him to enter the Church, and made him deacon. Ma- rinus retired on the mountain of Titano, where he erect- ed a hermitage, and died towards the close of the 4th century. According to the legend, the miracles wrought at his tomb attracted a number of pilgrims to the place, who settled there, and this gave rise to his saintship. — Herzog, Real-EncyUop. ix, 108 ; Pierer, Universal-Lexi- hon, X, 893 ; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, xxxiii,769.
Mariolatry (Gr. Mapia, Mai-]/, and Xn-piia, ado- ration) is tlie technical term given by the Protestant world to the worship which Romanists render to the Virgin Mary. Romanists themselves term this worship Ilyijerdulia (q. v.), to ilistingulsh it from the worship
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paid to God, which they term Latria (q. v.), and adora- tion paid to saints, Dulia (q. v.). In our articles Hy- I'KKDi'i.iA, Ijimaci'late CONCEPTION, and Invocation OF Saints, we have already pointed out the great ditfi- cultj' of bringing distinctions so refined within the com- prehension of the common mind, so as to prevent the multitude from worshipping the creature instead of the Creator. "As mother of the Saviour of the world," says Dr. Schaft' ((7;. Hist, ii, 410), '• the Virgin Mary un- questionably holds forever a peculiar jjositioii among all women and in the history of redemption ;'' and, from this point of view, he remarks that it is "perfectly nat- ural, nay, essential to sound religious feeling, to associate with Mary the fairest traits of maidenly and maternal character, and to revere her as the highest model of female purity, love, and piety. . . . But, on the other hand, it is equally unquestionable that she is nowhere in the N. T. excepted from the universal sinfuhiess and the universal need of redemption, lior represented as immac- ulately holy, or as in any way an object of divine venera- tion." Koman Catholics, however, have insisted upon the adoration, as they term worship in this instance, of the mother of Jesus, holding that Mary has been as- sumed in the Trinity, so as to make it a Quaternity ; that "Marj' is the complement of the Trinity" (Pusey, Eirenicon, ii, 107), and that the intercession of Mary is needed for the salvation of the followers of Jesus Christ. We quote the words of Liguori himself: "We most readily admit that Jesus Christ is the only Media- tor of Justice, and that by his merits he obtains us all grace and salvation ; but we say that ]\Iary is the ]Me- iliatrix of Grace ; and that receiving all she obtains through Jesus Christ, and because she prays and asks for it in the name of Jesus Christ, yet all the same, ■whatever graces we receive, they come to us through her intercession" {Glories of Mary, p. 12-4). There is certainly not a word in the Bible, nor in the creeds of the Apostolic Church, nor even in the writings of the Church fathers of the first five centuries, to warrant any Christian in assigning such a position to Mary, the mother of Jesus, as the Catholic Church, both Latin and (ireek, has dared to bestow upon her. One of the accepted interpreters of the Church of Rome, Liguori, in commenting on the exalted position which the Virgin Mary should hold in the estimation of Latin communi- cants, says that slie is (iueen of Mercy (p. 13) ; that she is the Mother of all mankind (p. 23) ; that she offered her Son to the Father on Mount Calvary (p. 23) ; that she is especially the Mother of repentant sinners (p. 42) ; I hat she is our Life (p. 52) ; that God was reconciled with sinners by the humility and purity of Mary (p. 5G) ; that she obtains us perseverance (p. 59) ; that she ren- ders death sweet to her clients (p. (58) ; that she is our Protectress at the hour of death (p. 71V, that she is the Hope of all (p. 79) ; that she is our (inly Itefuge, Help, and Asylum (^p. 81) ; that she is the I'ropitiatory of the whole world (p. 81) ; that she is the one City of Refuge (p. 89) ; that it is her office to withhold God's arm from chastising sinners until he is pacified (p. 93) ; that she is the Comfortress of the world, the Refuge of the un- fortunate (p. 100) ; that we shall be heard more quickh' if Ave call on the name of j\Iary than if we call on the name of Jesus (p. 100) ; that she is our Patroness (p. 100) ; that she is Queen of heaven and hell, of all saints, and all evil spirits, because she conciuered the latter by her virtues, and the devil by her fair humility and holy life (p. 110) ; that she protects us from the di- vine justice and from the devil (p. 115); that at the name of Mary every knee bows and hell trembles (p. 110); that she is the Ladder of ])aradise, the Gate of heaven, the most true Mediatrix between God and man (p. 121),- that her intercession is necessary for salvation (p. 122); that she is the iMediatrix of grace (p. 124); that in her is all hope of life' and virtue, JlU grace of the Way and Truth (p. 125); tliat in her we find eternal salvation (p. 125) ; that no one can enter heaven exccj)! by her (p. 127) ; that all graces of the spiritual life are